Acceptance of Agile Methodologies in Non-IT Professional Service Firms

Agile methodologies (AMs) have gained increasing popularity for managing projects in professional services firms (PSFs). Given that they were initially meant for the software industry (Koch, 2005), to date they have been particularly adopted and studied in IT companies. Despite their wide implementation, companies still struggle to foster their acceptance as valuable methodologies aimed to increase flexibility, organizational efficiency, and ensure resilience in harsh environments (Chang & Thong, 2009). Moreover, in line with recent research (Serrador & Pinto, 2015), agile methodologies have been found to provide significant benefits also to non-IT professional firms, such as law, accounting, HR consulting firms. Notwithstanding, the literature on agile methodologies in these firms is still limited (e.g., Conforto et al., 2014). Based on these gaps, this empirical study attempts to shed light on the factors affecting the acceptance of agile methodologies by applying the Ability-Motivation-Opportunity (AMO) framework in non-IT professional firms.